“Sometimes, films set in and around Hollywood manage to capture a sense about the place that’s strange and uncanny, a place in love with its past and afraid of its future, leaving nothing but ghosts behind to haunt the hills, and to walk the empty mansions.”
“The characters in ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains,’ ‘Smithereens’ and ‘Suburbia’ find in punk rock a convenient shorthand for authenticity, a posture which presages its eventual absorption into the very mechanisms it sets out to oppose.”
“Just as Reed’s real-life contemporaries reflect on the revolutionary ideals of their era in ‘Reds,’ Beatty bears witness to his own, staring down a massive canvas of his contemporaries’ successes and failures, the romance of their innovations and the exclusionary nature of their excess.”
“His stories, and our fascination with the private lives of the rich and famous, aren’t going anywhere.”
“‘Freddy vs. Jason’ is — like almost all horror movies — a signpost for the anxieties of an era, looking much like the prestige horror movies of today will look from the vantage point of the next decade.”
“Here’s to hoping that Meredith Hagner will continue to make us laugh while taking her ludicrous characters seriously for many more years, just like Marilyn Monroe did before her.”
“‘Argo’ allows you to enjoy the CIA’s outlandish caper, but it also confronts you with the ambivalence of the larger picture.”
Michael J. Casey on the TCM Classic Film Festival 2018
An Essay by Marshall Shaffer
“There has always been a conflict at play in Nicholson’s screen presence: between ‘Nicholson’ and ‘Jack.’ The desire to be taken seriously and the lure of the riotous Jack persona have always done battle across his decades of stardom.”
“At some point, you’ve got to take down the celebrity posters, or at least reassess what they represent.”
“Harry Dean Stanton was dependable, durable and made whatever part his own, no matter how big or small.”
“Kirsten Dunst deserves an apology, and a second look, from all of us.”
Vague Visages Short Stories #7: Bleeding and Breathing Deeply by Q.V. Hough (Fargo, North Dakota)
“Unexplored potential aside, there is a deeper issue which casts ‘Ingrid Goes West,’ for me at least, in a pale rather than neon light.”
“‘Rampart’ can never step out of the shadows.”
“When I moved back to Fargo, I began thinking more about visual themes, which ultimately inspired Vague Visages.”
August 2016
“The filmmaker continues to dream of the painter’s Arcadia, however illusory it may be.”
“It’s ‘The Leftovers’ minus the chainsmokers, angry locals and cryptic dialogue.”
